Travelling mercies

Here are M., P18, and B.  (New here and don't know P18?  Here is a brief explanation.)  We went over to her house early this morning to say good-bye to her before she left for the airport to begin her long series of flights to Uganda where she will be working in a children's home for HIV+ children for the next 9 months.  I am so excited to see the things she's going to do and accomplish, but it is also so, so hard to say good-bye.  I've known her since she was four years old and she has been in and out of my house multiple times a week for the last 14 years.  I'm going to miss her.

She is also one of M.'s best friends and I'm also sad for my daughter.  I remember all too well the feeling of things changing and that they will never be the same.  It's hard.  But thankfully there is skype and so it will be easier for all to keep in contact.  I do love that aspect of modern technology.

So if you think of it, say a prayer for P18 today... for strength and safety and grace.

And since desperate times call for desperate measures, a mutual friend and I are kidnapping P18's mother today and taking her to IKEA for therapeutic lunching and shopping, where we will alternately make funny jokes to make her smile and give her fistfuls of tissues.  Ah, the sacrifices we make for our friends.

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Head over to the Multiples and More blog and read my post on eating from world cuisine.